Special interest groups and NGOs had to take their complaints about human rights violations in Malaysia to Geneva because Putrajaya would not engage in a discussion with them, said the representative of a NGO.
Jerald Joseph, director of Pusat Komunikasi MAsyarakat (Komas), said they had never even received a response to the letters they had sent to government ministries. To make matters worse,the Coalition of Malaysian Non-Governmental Organizations in UPR (Universal Periodic Review) Process, or Comango, was declared an illegal entity. Komas is one of the 54 groups in Comango.
“We had to go to Geneva to complain because the doors for consultation here were closed,” he said yesterday.
Jerald said in the run-up to Malaysia’s second UPR last October, local stakeholders, including Comango, honly had two meetings with Foreign Ministry officials. However, he said Putrajaya gave the impression to the international community that it had held dialogues with civil society in preparing its report for the UPR.
“In the UN, every country wants to look good. And in the case of Malaysia, many outstanding human rights issues were not resolved. The fact is we did not get sufficient space for constructive engagement,” he added.
Comango, Suhakam and the Bar Council were among 28 organisations in Malaysia that travelled to Geneva last October to present a report to the United Nations to compel Putrajaya to improve on its human rights record.
Over the past six months, Comango has had to fend off attacks against it by Muslim groups claiming it was promoting unnatural sex and acceptance of LGBT lifestyles, which runs contrary to Islamic belief.
Jerald said that when Comango was being flayed in the mainstream media, even the Foreign Ministry, which was aware of the procedures involved in the UPR process did not defend coalition.
“The Muslim groups with the aid of the media promoted hate speech and got away unpunished,” he said.
At the second UPR conducted in Geneva last October, Malaysia’s human rights record was reviewed and United Nations member states made recommendations to Malaysia.
Putrajaya took six months to respond to the UN Human Rights Council on the recommendations.
The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia said out of the 233 recommendations received from the UN member states during the October review, Malaysia accepted 150.
The 83 recommendations that Putrajaya did not support called for immediate changes to existing laws, regulations and policies or matters.
Story: The Malaysian Insider
